Musings From The Minister

Testimony - A Matter Of Faith

2012-01-29T13:43:00.000-08:00

One of the best of ancient practices that we are recovering in the Christian community is Testimony. Again this Sunday we had fresh examples of Testimony’s relevance and power. Members of our church stood up to speak about their faith. This was not easy for any of them.

We have examples in our communal faith story of scripture of how even leaders such as Moses said, “Find someone else to speak. It’s not my talent.” But despite his fears, he got on his feet, opened his mouth and voila, an improbable Exodus from slavery.

Faith is not just about feeling peaceful and at ease. That is part of the faith journey, but not all of it.

For everything there is a season, a time to sit quietly and a time to speak, a time to take in and a time to give out, a time to sit in the back row and a time to take your turn on your feet.

When individuals like Val and Jeremy, Mary and Norma, Pauline and Theresa tell us what music and faith means to them, the whole community is swept up and carried along. Thanks to the fantastic five for your efforts!

…and to all our musicians this morning. Go onto the website for the full effect !

Peter

Christians - Part of the Israel/Palestine Solution ????

2012-01-22T11:30:00.000-08:00

I have been showing my pictures from Palestine and Israel this past week and so the people and the places I visited have been in my thoughts and heart.

Tom Gettman was one of the people I met in Bethlehem and he told the story of the 8-year-old daughter of a Ramallah-based Mercy Corps staff person who wondered about the huge barrier separating Israel and Palestine.

When riding with her mother from Jerusalem along the snaking barrier wall and then passing through the onerous Callandia checkpoint “border post”, she asked,

“Mommy, why do Jews have to live behind that wall?”

The sad thing about walls is that they don’t just shut out the “other” but they also close us off from commnicaiton and relationship.

And of course the Jewish community does not have to live behind a wall. But it will take courage and persistent commitment to find another way, a way to peace with justice in Israel and Palestine.

Christians have historically been part of the problem. Could they also be part of a non-violent solution? The Kairos Palestine document which United Church folks are now studying tells us this is possible, that there are ways to show our support for brothers and sisters suffering in Palestine. If you would like to know more about this document, try the internet or our website can point you in the right direction.

Peter

Poets and Playwrights as Politicians

2012-01-15T18:31:00.000-08:00

Vaclav Havel died last month at the age of 75. He will be remembered as the poet and playwright who led the non-violent revolution in the former Czechoslovakia, then went on to become the country’s first president.

Havel enjoyed greater support abroad than in his home country as he took positions that were critical of his own country. He spoke out against the expulsion of the indigenous Sudeten German population after World War II. One of his first actions as a president was to offer an amnesty for those imprisoned by the former regime because they may have been communists. At his death he was a member of the Czech Green Party.

Havel once wrote,

“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

I don’t suppose a poet and playwright would have much of a chance in our political system. Too bad.

Peter

Take That Risk

2011-12-18T17:02:00.000-08:00

Seventy seven years ago a seventeen year old young woman was waiting off stage at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. It was amateur night and she was next on stage with a dance routine. But the duo before were also dancing and when they were done she was so imtimidated that she could not dance.

She decided to sing instead. She had never sung in public before. She wasn’t sure that she had any singing talent. But she sang anyway. Her name was Ella Fitzgerald.

It makes you wonder what would happen if we risked a new routine.

Peter

Of One Mind?

2011-12-12T19:12:00.000-08:00

Last week at the Kairos Bethlehem encounter, the whole gathering seemed to be of one mind. But of course that is never the case and over the week some differences became more apparent.

In one presentation from a European country, there was a challenge to the patriarchal attitudes inherent in the document.

This was vigourously opposed by some of the local Palestinian authors including women. They felt that this was just one more imposition from the outside telling them what to do. Local voices said , “At this point we are just trying to survive. Allow us to tackle these issues in our own way, at our own speed.”

However the representatives of Christian social justice groups and churches were all agreed on the the Kairos document’s call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the Israeli settlements. We were convinced that the relentless increase in settlements, roads and barriers has placed the Palestinian community in an impossible situation

Where else in the world is a whole people barred from using the main highways because of their race? is this not technically an apartheid?

The Kairos document asks the Christian community to act before it is too late. I wonder if Canadian churches will do so. I wonder if we here at Emmanuel will be able to see the world through Palestinian eyes.

Peter

The Wall Of Separation - Posts From Bethlehem

2011-12-06T16:46:00.000-08:00

We met at dusk for a worship service at the Wall. This outdoor service needed a little light. During the opening words, the presider invited the security guard in the tower that loomed over us to turn his searchlight on us so we could see the words on our bulletin. When that did not happen we resorted to candle light.

I joined two ministers, Lisa serving the Lutheran church in Sweden and another from the church of Scotland in reading alternate words to O little Town of Bethlehem. Mine were:

While morning stars and evening stars
Shine out in your dark sky,
Despair now stalks your troubled streets
Where innocents still die.
And Jesus, Child of Mary,
Whose love will never cease,
Feels even now your pain and fear,
Longs with you for your peace.

After scripture, hymns and a choir from the Bethlehem Bible College, a sermon, and an exchange fo olive branches and candles, we walked out to “We are walking in the Light of God” to plant an olive tree on behalf of Kairos. Our midweek evening Advent services are around the theme of light, so I felt you were all with me as we worshipped here this night, holding up our candles of faith hope and love in front of the Wall of separation.

Peter

We Are Pilgrims - Posts From Bethlehem

2011-12-04T05:30:00.000-08:00

How often does one get to spend the second Sunday in Advent in Bethlehem? I am staying for the week in the Bethlehem Hotel, a half hour walk from the ancient Church of the Nativity. This morning Barbara Lloyd, the other United Church representative, and I got to the Church before the tour bus onslaught.

I had to bend in half to squeeze in the tiny door of the church. Here was a reminder at the door to humble oneself when entering. This for me is one of those "thin places" in this land. That's what the Celts called these places where the threshold to the holy was more translucent than usual.

We had arrived at the end of what may have been an Armenian service of worship. Sun streamed in the upper windows casting the pillars in lovely tones of light and shade. The atmosphere was thick with incense and radiant with large chandeliers and freshly placed prayer candles.

We took a seat just emptied as the worshippers had gone forward for communion. They streamed by us with pieces of bread in hand. For what purpose? To share with family members who could not attend? To take to relatives in hospital? We felt a bit disconnected to what was taking place in a language that we did not understand. We were visitors but we were not just tourists. We were pilgrims, as we told the Security officers when we entered the country yesterday.

A woman walked by us with her two children. She turned and with a smile offered a piece of bread. Her son did the same.At that moment we felt part of that Bethlehem Advent service.

These Christians in the Holy Land have gone from 10% of the population to less than 2% but they are still here and they have a story they want to tell. That's why we are here this week.

Peter

Apocalypse And An Unlikely Saviour

2011-11-27T16:29:00.000-08:00

The film Melancholia fits with the apocalyptic images in the scripture texts for the first Sunday in Advent. Our cinephile group saw this at the Bytowne on Friday night. Kirsten Dunst was brilliant and I can see why she won best actress at Cannes.

Danish director Lars von Trier who was banned from Cannes after jokes about Jews and Hitler, has a bleak view of relationships and the fate of the world. He conveys the brokenness of the humanity in ways that has the audience shaking their heads and groaning.

The weight of the world which as been on Justine (Kirsten) begins to shift onto us. We feel the sadness, the inability to escape fate. And then there is this moment when an unexpected Christ figure steps forward.

It is a small thing in the larger scheme of things but an act of compassion occurs. Sometimes that is all that is available to us.

Some of the group are lobbying for a more cheerful film next time.

Peter

Remembering The Past

2011-11-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

This morning our community of faith began to meet at 9 am. That was the time that veterans, their spouses and/or children sat down for breakfast with some of the youth of Emmanuel. Parents of the youth and the teenagers served the meal. It is a lovely tradition.

Conversations took place as the young people got to hear from these veterans what life was like for them as they went off to war as young people. And our older members showed an interest in these young people, asking them about their lives. Some of the youth had been to memorials in Europe and spoke about them.

The vets, families and youth then walked in to the sound of the bagpipes played by James Ritchie, a grandchild of Jean MacDonald. A young child walked in with her grandfather dressed in his uniform, looking up at him and wondering what it all meant.

This is one of the ways we show respect for the story of our congregation members. This story includes suffering, sacrifice, and grieving. It is not an easy Sunday. Emotions are close to the surface.

And as I look out over the worship gathering, I see those who have been in war zones in Afghanistan, El Salvador and countries in Africa. These wars have all left their scars and we hope that our children will not have to experience this in their lives. And so we pray for peace and we work for a more peaceful world.

Peter

Looking For Inspiration - Look At Our People

2011-10-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

I have spoke to several people this week whose commitment to being part of this community amazes me.

There’s a woman who takes three buses to attend one of the midweek programs at our church. And she brings children along with her.

Three woman that I have spoken with recently have to battle their way through the difficulties of the morning to get themselves ready for a 10 am service.

Another person just does not have the support to make that time in the morning but devotedly listens to the live-streaming on the web.

And I am sure that is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the inconveniences that individuals overcome and the sacrifices that people make to connect and contribute to this community of Emmanuel.

All I can say is, Wow! That is inspiring!

Peter

Thinking And Acting Outside The Box

2011-10-23T13:10:00.000-07:00

Don’t we love to think of ourselves as unique, free thinking individuals who make our own decisions?

Bill Bishop, not the fighter pilot one, wrote The Big Sort, a book on how we pick our neighbourhoods. Bishop says that we have a tendency to choose to live among those who are politically ‘like us.’ By choosing politically like-minded parts of the country or city, we become a little less likely to encounter other points of view.

Knowing how power works, it should be no surprise to us that the political machinery is well aware of their constituencies and who is living in their neighburhoods. Not only do they know where we live, they know how to design their message to appeal to our self-interest.

Here again, Christians and all those who care for their neighbours, need to be ‘as wise as serpents and a harmless as doves.” Those who do think of the needs of those who are different from us, have a greater responsibility to speak and act for the common good.

Peter

The Right Battle

2011-10-16T13:26:00.000-07:00

I was on a study leave event this weekend and I heard a story about Dietrich Bonhoeffer that I had never heard before. Apparently there was a time when a number of the German pastors were present at a meeting with some important Nazi officials.

The highest ranking Nazi rose to his feet and shouted out, “Heil Hitler.” Bonheoffer and others pastors who were resisting the Nazi regime stood up and joined the salute.

One pastor remained seated. Bonhoeffer leaned over and said, “Stand up you fool. This is not the time. This is not worth dying for.”

Bonhoeffer as we know did die for his faith but this was not to be the time or place or issue. Which raises the question , what is the issue that is worth going to the wall for? If we decide to make a stand, then let it be for an issue we can look back on and feel good about. Let it be carefully considered rather than a reaction.

On our journey of transformation, we are all in the process of learning what this means. How as a community do we move together? How do we make truthful and loving decisions? We are all learners and we are all teachers in this process.

Peter

Tolerance Through Breaking Bread Together

2011-09-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

Someone has done a study on race relations on campus and they have discovered that students who eat with other ethnic minorities are more likely to report good race relations than those who do not.

Apparently it is not enough to have racial intermingling in the classroom or dormitories. The report suggests that one difference is that the dining room seating is voluntary.

This coming Sunday is World Communion Sunday and that is a reminder to us that this communion we are part of is meant to be a force that brings all races together around one table. Canada and Ottawa are home to an amazing diversity of peoples. Sometimes our churches reflect that reality.

One more interesting point in this study. The dominant white community felt they did a better job than did the ethnic minority groups. That tells me predominantly white churches still need to do some soul-searching.

Peter

Lady Gaga

2011-08-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

After this week’s gospel reading on the foreigner woman who bested Jesus in a debate and proved to be more Christian than he was, I am looking for unexpected sources of truth. And I stumbled across Lady Gaga.

It turns out that Lady Gaga began life as Stefani Germanotta. Maybe I’m the last to discover this but an article by Rodney Clapp describes her as an awkward teenager. She experienced bullying for being ugly, having a big nose and giant eyebrows. They put her down for her laugh, her makeup and her love of theatre. It got bad enough that she wanted to stay home from school.

In her new life as Lady Gaga, Stefani has maintained her outrageous persona. But despite her present day fame, she can’t forget her pain as an unhappy teenager. Thus beneath the flash and glam, Stefani conveys a message that despite others’ putdowns because you’re too fat or too skinny, despite harassment because you’re gay, you have real worth. if you’re a misfit, embrace yourself.

Fans write to her in gratitude for helping to liberate them from the chains of hate. A 15 year old offers this testimony, “At every concert you’ve said that you want to liberate us and that is what you’ve done. Your songs have taught me not to listen to haters and be who I am, because baby, I was born this way.”

Lady Gaga may be an unlikely source of truth but this sounds like good news in unusual packing.

Peter

Real books

2011-06-02T12:25:00.001-07:00

I can’t quite get my head around this one. I read a few days ago that the University of Chicago has opened a state-of-the-art library. The pubic space is full of computers. But there is not a book in sight. What? Obviously students are learning to learn without books. Actually most of us are. Amazon has announced this week that they are selling more digital books than print books. I have to admit that I downloaded the Wind in the Willows and was reading it at the pool while waiting for a little girl to finish her swim lesson. I understand the convenience of the digital library but I still like to see books around me on the shelves without having to turn on a machine.

In a recent magazine which still comes to me on paper through the mail, John Buchanan quoted this from John Updike,

“Shelved rows of books warm and brighten the starkest room...By bedside and easy chair, books promise a cozy, swift, and silent relapse from this world into another...Smaller than a breadbox, bigger than a TV remote, the average book fits into the human hand with a seductive nestling, a kiss of texture...Books hold our beams down; they acts as counterweight to our fickle and flighty natures.”

Non-Violent Protest IS The Way

2011-05-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

Stephen Zunes , professor of politics and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco and chair fo the academic advisory committee of the International Center on Non-violent conflict, offers a view off the mainstream media grid.

He claims that the most successful pro-democracy protests have been the non-violent ones. Over the past decades, this has been the case. Note - the Philippines, Serbia, Chile, Poland, Bolivia, the Maldives and now Egypt and Tunisia.

Even Libya made its greatest strides in the early non-violent phase of the uprising. In the first week resignations took place in the cabinet, pilots crashed their planes or flew them out of the country, refused to bomb protesters. Thousands of soldiers defected. But when the protest grew violent the gains stalled.

Zunes claims that Libya may end up being an example not of the ineffectiveness of non-violence but of the need for strategic, well-organized non-violent protest.

It takes great courage to take part in these protests but in the long run, the violent rebellion may prove far more costly.

Peter

But I don’t like church!

2011-05-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

So how is the church to respond to a generation that does not seem to want to go to church? Some younger people are attending but the echo generation (the children of the boomers) is less connected to church than previous generations.

Tom Sherwood, former campus minister, is helping us to listen and learn to the echos. Tom is conducting a research project on youth and young adults called Listening to the Echo.

Tom’s research uncovers a deep spirituality that is part of the lives of many young people. They care about justice issues. They are passionate about the environment. They just don’t see the church as being relevant or helpful to them.

Tom heard this comment from a 20 something young person:

“Religion is more harmful than helpful.”

Tom says he has heard lots of ignorance about who we are as the United Church. Many young people confuse us with Catholicism and American fundamentalism. When the echos articulate their theology, it is remarkably like our own in the United Church.

How do we help echos see the real us?

Perhaps we need to be clearer and more articulate about who we really are. as a faith community. Perhaps we need to find ways to be in conversation with young people to see what we do have in common or to see what we can learn from each other. What do you think?

....more on this in weeks to come.

Peter

God So Loved The Dirt

2011-04-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

“God so loved the dirt...”

There it was - this unusual title of a magazine article about God loving dirt.

It seems like a fitting headline for this weekend with Good Friday and Earth Day coinciding. Christians should be first in line when it comes to caring for the dirt and for all the other elements and beings of creation.

The Holy Weekend begins with Jesus going straight from the Last Supper to a garden where he prays for guidance. And now on Easter morning Mary goes to the other side of the city to follow the burial rituals. Here in the cemetery she mistakes Jesus for a gardener. And so he is. The God who is revealed in Genesis is more gardener than warrior. We lost that somewhere along the way and as Joni Mitchell wrote, “we have to get back to the garden.”

In Norman Wirzba’s article, he says “Whether Christians do right by the environment depends on whether we see the Earth as a megastore where we can shop for whatever we want or as a garden that needs careful tending.”

Peter

Accept Me As I Am

2011-04-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

A local Houston paper reported that over two dozen churches in Houston sponsored a “Bring your Gay Teen to Church Day.” This was set in motion because of a teenager’s suicide. A desperate young person could no longer cope with years of bullying. The largest church in Houston, Joel Osteen’s megachurch, declined that invitation to be involved. Osteen believes homosexuality is a sin.

I recall on a Habitat for Humanity trip to Amarillo, a young person from Joel’s church told me how exciting it was to be part of a such a huge congregation. You really should come here if you are ever in town. If I was a young gay person, being bullied, I don’t think I would feel all that welcome at that megachurch.

I wonder how welcome gay folks feel in our community. I wonder what we can do to make those who endure cruel jokes and spiritual judgement, feel more welcome in our congregation. The Ottawa Presbytery is taking this year to explore what it would mean for us to become an affirming presbytery. I hope we can be listening and learning so we can consider that question for our own congregation.

Peter

Prayers For Hard Times

2011-03-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

The news of the world over the last month has been very difficult to watch. The stories from Japan, Yemen and Libya seem to pile misery upon misery. No wonder that anyone who can seems to want to get out of those dangerous places as soon as they can.

One story I heard recently reported Christian leaders in Libya who say they have no intention of leaving the country. Religious sisters working in hospitals in the eastern coastal religion have been tending the wounded. The Catholic Church is the largest group in Libya but other churches are also living their ministry in the midst of much suffering and uncertainty. So our prayers are with Catholic, Anglican, Greek Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and our Pentacostal brothers and sisters.

Peter

How Safe Is Our Path?

2011-03-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

Like many of you, I have been watching the disaster scenes from Japan with horror. Is this really taking place? Are those real people in those cars, slowing down as the wall fo water rushes toward them and they are swept away?

One interview today was shockingly real. A Canadian returning from Japan and his work with a nuclear plant described his experience. As he watched from a safe vantage point cars in the parking lot below were tossed about. A nearbye fishing plant was picked up and slammed into a cliff. He admitted that he was still shaking. This native son was so grateful to have his feet back on solid Canadian ground. He was never going back to Japan Then he warmly embraced his grand-daughter.

We Canadians often feel grateful when we return home to safe, familiar territory. But as people of faith, we have a second instinct, a counter cultural instinct to go out into a world which is increasingly uncertain. Our mission is to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. How safe does that make our path?

Peter

How Can We Respond, As A Church, To The Need

2011-03-06T14:55:00.000-08:00

Jan and I tried all the church doors until we finally found one that opened. This was 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, an African-American centre of protest in 1963. In September of that year, four members of the KKK dynamited the church killing four girls between the age of 11 and 14. The tragedy reminded the world of the cruel determination of those who resisted the dream of racial justice.

In 1997 Spike Lee produced a documentary about the four girls and the lives that were cut short. Since then their stories have been in my thoughts.

We were shown around the church by a man whom we took to be one of the deacons. Particularly moving was the gorgeous modern stained glass of a black Jesus on the cross, a gift from the people of Wales.

I asked if any of the families of those girls still attended and he said yes, there were still family members that attended worship now and then. He took great pains to tell us that this was not just a museum but was a living breathing congregation of Christians.

Amazing how the church provided such leadership and strength to the civil rights movement. I wonder if we could do so again in response to the immense needs in our world.

Divided Loyalties

2011-02-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

I was one of the fans celebrating on Sunday when the Packers won the big one. But I had to feel for players like Troy Polamalu. He is known for his thick hair commercials and his violent hits but I had heard that he was one of the nicest guys you could meet in that high pressure world of professional football.

Now a Pittsburgh paper has reported that five years ago Troy and his wife converted to Orthodox Christianity. Troy says there is nothing so beautiful to him as the Orthodox liturgy. Troy fasts during Lent and for another six weeks during the winter Lent or what we call Advent. He does not claim that faith makes him a better player. But it does give his life meaning.

This is why it’s hard to be a sports fan-atic. When you get to know a little more about the personal side of the enemy team, your loyalties can be divided. Maybe that’s a good thing.

Peter

Bridge Builders and Spiritual Engineers

2011-01-30T12:02:00.000-08:00

In a time of religious and racial intolerance and misunderstanding, (when hasn’t that been the case) there are always a few who are not content with complacent hand-wringing. There are always people around us who are trying to bridge divides. Eboo Patel is a Muslim community builder who is trying to do just that. And he says the most frutiful ground for creating interfaith cooperation is on college campuses and in churches.

He builds on the ideas of sociologists Bob Putnam and David Campbell and their recent book, American Grace, who say that one of the most effective ways to improve attitudes toward people of different religious backgrounds is to have a positive, meaningful encounter with them. Do something together and attitudes change.

That means we are in a unique position in a church community. We are situated in the very place where change for the good, can and does happen.

We are blessed with a community of bridge builders, spiritual engineers. Blessed are we!

Peter

God's Light- Peace For All

2011-01-16T20:15:00.000-08:00

Friday night our church film group took in London River, a tough film to watch. A Christian woman and a Muslim man search London for their children following the 2005 bombings. In the discussion that followed at a local bar we came up with quite a list of why this was anything but a Hollywood ending. Still the two parents found ways to hesitantly reach across their separate realities. And it was the Muslim that took the initial and the larger steps.

Even tentative attempts to bridge the religious and cultural divides in our world are steps worth taking. Some say that it is only Christians that are taking the steps. But then comes the news that Muslim intellectuals and activists called upon Egyptian Muslims to attend Coptic churches for Christmas Eve mass to show solidarity with the country’s Coptic minority after the Epiphany bombing of a Coptic church.

A 40 year old house wife Fatima Mostafa said, “I want to show the world that Islam is a religion of peace and that such attacks are nothing more than a result of poverty, ignorance and oppression.”

A story like that makes you believe that God’s light might yet find a way to make some of the old prophecies sound possible.

Peter

Success Starts With A Single Step

2011-01-09T14:25:00.000-08:00

I’ve been reading Parker Palmer’s writings on spirituality for years, so I was delighted to find a reflection by him on writing as an act of faith.

Palmer describes a revelation he received thirty years ago on holding in his hands the first copy of his first book. Up until that point he had written essays. Somebody liked what they read and asked him for more. The next thing he knew he had a book.

The bolt from heaven was that we can do things we don’t think we can do if we don’t think about doing them.

And so “if you can’t write a book, then write a lot of essays. If you can’t write an essay, write a lot of paragraphs. If you can’t write a paragraph, write a line or a word. And if you can’t do that on the page, write your truth with your life, which is far more important than any book.”

For Palmer faith is less about a big leap, more about taking one more step. Writer or not, that applies to us all.

Peter

Dare To Change - Trust The Spirit

2011-01-04T14:33:00.000-08:00

So do you have any resolutions for the new year? There are those who say that people do not change, that January gym members' enthusiasm inevitably expires before their memberships do. That may be reality but it does not do justice to the few who do make a decision and manage to stumble along in a new direction. Some people do change, some of the time.

The gospel texts for the season of Epiphany are all about choosing a new direction. Jesus chooses to go to John to be baptized. Simon and Andrew choose to follow this new teacher. Jesus chooses to see his next steps of faith as a response to the inspiration of the Spirit.

The decisions to move in a new direction are probably never as neat as the story describes. There is probably more doubt, disagreement and discouragement than the narrative reveals.

But the gospels have this spirit of adventure and hope that is quite thrilling. I choose to believe that despite our human resistance, the Spirit constantly invites us to new beginnings. That's a theme I am going to be exploring this month. Can I interrupt old patterns? Can I open some new door in my life? Can I trust that God has something new for me to discover?

"I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"
Isaiah 43:19

Peter

Transforming Life

2010-12-20T16:45:00.000-08:00

I was listening to Christopher Hitchens’ debate on religion with Tony Blair on the radio and had to agree with many of Hitchens’ examples of religious excess and hubris. Human history is littered with examples of abuses in every institution.

But do poor marriages mean the institution of marriage should be banned? Do corrupt political leaders mean that we should abandon politics? Hopefully abusive teachers and doctors do not mean we should close all hospitals or schools. And one can argue that a fundamentalist interpretation of faith does not mean that religion must be narrow-minded and exclusive.

Hitchens can point out the lack of logic and common sense of much religion but he cannot negate the powerful effect of a spiritual leader like Gandhi.

A poster that hangs in my home office is graced by a quote from Gandhi. He lists the 7 deadly social sins:

politics without principle
wealth without work
commerce without morality
pleasure without conscience
education without character
science without humanity
worship without sacrifice

Will that kind of critique and reminder of what truly matters to human beings ever lose its power to transform life?

Peter

Do I Need To Be A Member?

2010-12-05T12:29:00.001-08:00

Here's an interesting stat that confirms what many of us have been noticing in recent years. 1n 2001 about 11% of church goers were not members nor were they seeking to be members. Now ten years later, that number is about the same. But...the number of young adults in that grouping is close to double those who are over 45.

So what does that mean? What do we do?

One response would be to do a whole lot more to try convince the under 45s to change their ways and officially join up. Another response which I think we are trying to live into at Emmanuel is to find ways for young people to be connected and involved in our ministry in all kinds of ways. There are many paths up the mountain. Let's keep them all open.

Peter

Desmond Tutu - Christianity's Dalai Lama

2010-11-28T12:35:00.000-08:00

I am going to miss the voice of Desmond Tutu. He retired from public life last month on his 79th birthday.

He always struck me as the Christian equivalent of the Dalai Lama. They both have the ability to chuckle in such a disarmingly human way and in the next moment to startle you with their spiritual insight.

I was a commissioner to General Council in London Ontario when Archbishop Tutu captivated the court with his stories and his presence.

His voice was authentic because unlike many of us Canadians who have enjoyed the best of all possible worlds, Tutu’s faith put him in real danger.

Tutu once said, “God is not even-handed. God is biased, horribly in favour of the weak. The minute an injustice is perpetrated, God is going to be on the sid of the one who is being clobbered.”

He could say things like this and still reach out to those who occupied a contrary view and he could do so with a smile and an open hand. That’s a special gift, to not demonize your enemies. We will miss him.

Peter

A treasure of a small group

2010-11-04T16:04:00.001-07:00

Those that study the characteristics of vital churches tend to agree that one of the commonalities of such churches, is their small group ministry. These small groups make a huge difference. If you can find a welcome and a place in a small group then you are much more likely to make that church. your home

Emmanuel United has managed to nurture the growth and development of a number of small groups. I drop in on some of these groups from time to time and marvel at how different they are and how well they work.

This week I joined the group that for many years has been described as “Larry’s Bible Study.” Larry never calls it that but others do.

The group just finished up a several week study of Martin Buber’s theological classic, I and Thou. This book is the theological equivalent of War and Peace, begun by many and finished by few. And although the members take turns in presenting, when the discussion begins to stumble, Larry offers a question or an interpretation and the conversation is up and running once more. It doesn’t hurt that Larry taught a course on this particular text decades ago or that in his 90s he still can skilfully disentangle a concept which baffles the rest of us.

This small group along with its sagacious leader, is one of the many hidden treasures of the Emmanuel community.

Peter

Stewardship - More Than Money

2010-10-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

Today we introduce our stewardship program and this year’s theme, More than Enough. That is meant to capture a way of thinking that opens our lives and hands in generosity to others.

How well are we doing at that? One survey of 153 countries puts Canadians in the top five in the world when it comes to giving our money and time to charity. Congratulations! That’s impressive.

The survey also found that people are more likely to donate their money than their time. That’s intriguing. I’m not sure I know what that means.

Does this mean that our schedules are more valuable than our money?
Does it mean that we find it easier to write a cheque than to volunteer? Does it mean we need to put more of our time into opening doors for our church community and others to find a meaningful way to become involved?

Or maybe we don’t feel that we have more than enough time. Some people seem to have all the time in the world. Others are caring for children, parents, or friends and don’t feel they have a spare moment for themselves.

And still others are finding new meaning in sharing themselves with others.
One of the best stewardship testimonies I’ve seen recently came from Theo Fleury, the former NHL hockey player and abuse survivor. He said, “The experience of getting your life back together makes you a quality human being. You’ve got so much more to give,” Well said, Theo.

Peter

Jesus, Wine and Celebration

2010-10-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

I regularly visit Home-brewed Christianity and recently saw a blog about What Would Jesus Brew? It sparked some thoughts. Since I am getting ready to get back into home brewing, thanks to a friend who passed on his equipment, this felt timely.

I wonder if a few years from now Emmanuel might have it’s own little Oktoberfest. If we can’t serve God’s hoppy gift at our bazaar maybe we could do a visit to VanKleek Hill and try out some of that wonderful Beau’s Lug Tread Lager at their Oktoberfest next year. There’s a reason this company is winning awards.

Jesus drank with the best of them. And with those with whom society did not sit down with. And his purpose was not escape. His purpose was to widen and deepen the circle of faith. Celebrating a wedding, he made 150 gallons of wine. That’s about 800 bottles. This was a celebration of a new union and a time to rejoice.

In those days it was less dangerous than today. Instead of driving home in a dangerous weapon, all you did was fall off a donkey. Still the social issue of alcoholism and dangerous driving must be considered. But the Bible is able to speak to the dangers while still lauding the gift.

We could learn from that.

Peter

Love of God Creates Moderates

2010-10-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

Just because a pastor and congregation in Gainesville did not go through with a threat to burn 200 Qur’ans does not mean the end of hatred towards Islam. Qur’ans were burnt in Kansas, Michigan and Tennessee. Pages were torn out of the Qur’an outside the White House. Two people died in riots in Afghanistan at the thought of this action.

According to Religious News Services, Laleh Bakhtiar, the first woman to translate the Qur’an into English sees in this controversy, a theological difference between both Muslims and Christians who see God as a vengeful or a loving presence.

“If it’s fear of God , then you get these extremists. When you teach the love of God, then you become a moderate.”

It would be good to see the moderates become more vocal about this loving, peaceful God, more intentional about building bridges. Canada needs communities like this.

Peter

Moving House

2010-09-28T11:02:00.001-07:00

Seeing a reference to the this book of poetry by Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, I thought of the many times I have had to move from one home to another. Including university and moving for summer jobs, its around 24. There are always a few boxes I never get to. Most of us have had that sense of dislocation packing, moving, unpacking and adapting to new surroundings.

As a congregation we are living through that communal dislocation of moving house in our worship our committee meetings and our activities. I hope we have moments in the chaos when we realize that even these times can be life-giving. One of the traditional prayers in a funeral service encourages us to learn the lessons we can only learn when we are faced with mortality. Being "all shook up" can shake some grace into our lives.

O'Donnell's life began in a harsh and loveless coal-mining home in Pennsylvania. Her poems include her own miner father: "No poem for you my father/ I was always too afraid. Your quick anger, your dark days." She feels his frightening presence and after his death, we recognize the bond as she feels his absence, "hoping to find you again, my father."

As she grows into adulthood, a more hopeful new house emerges. Her sons delight her, as she watches them play basketball through the window and she asks, "Can I wish me a blessing?"

Can we wish ourselves a blessing? Why not?

Peter Lougheed

Where you go, I will go

2010-08-15T07:03:00.000-07:00

Tis the season for weddings and that will continue on through the fall season. couples will be fretting over getting the right flowers, music, poetry and maybe even scripture texts for the readings.

It doesn’t get used so much these days but over the years when presented alternative texts, people used to choose the words of Ruth, “Where you go, I will go.”

Athalya Brenner in a recent Interpretation magazine wonders why this text has been romanticized. Not only was Ruth a female, she was also a foreigner and a migrant worker which put her in a precarious position. Brehner says, “There is nothing romantic about being a fugitive, or about seeking economic asylym. What Ruth needed is what aliens and immigrants need today - human rights. Unlike civil rights, human rights are primarily matters of physicalities like eating, sheltering, multiplying, speaking and breathing.”

We appropriate stories from other ages to our own uses, but taken in their original context, their message is far more challenging and provocative than a superficial reading would indicate.

Peter

Prayer - From The Heart, Or Not At All

2010-05-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

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Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith

Barak Obama left a prayer at Jerusalem's Western Wall. Stephen Prothero admitted to reading this private communication, if it was indeed private. I mean what celebrity puts a prayer in the most famous prayer site in the world and expects it to remain private. Some seminarian stole the prayer and published it. Prothero says he was struggling with how to pray himself and so gave in to that common but questionable habit of looking over someone else's shoulder to read what was not intended to be public. Turns out it was nothing remarkable. In the end the only true prayer is one that emerges in honesty from one's own heart. It needn't be pretty or erudite or even polite. It does need to be real.

Prothero says that if he was to return to the Western Wall today he would leave a prayer for Obama and McCain. He'd pray that each of them would listen to what the Wall has to says about power and vulnerability, and the delicate and dangerous dance between them. That's Prothero's understanding of transcendence -"the significance of any human being, however large, is dwarfed by the mystery of millions of things we will never fully understand, not least the practice of prayer itself."

Peter

Revitalization Realization

2010-05-17T15:16:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, we had a meeting of the congregation to deal with some unexpected news about our anticipated CE Hall revitalization. Already on a tight timeline to get this done before the cold weather returns; already committed to a carefully debated cost estimate, expecting to be passing the final motions that would give the project the final go ahead, it was a shock for all of us to discover there were new expenses that increase the budget by about $400 k.

The good news, and let's remember that is our raison d'etre, is that none of us has to carry this burden alone. We have the wisdom of our community to lean on. We have experienced and sensible committees that are meeting to help us find a way though this situation. We have a history in this congregation of rising to clear some serious hurdles. And there is this fairly significant presence in our midst called , God. "Have a little faith" is a refrain that keeps reasserting itself into exasperated conversations.

I don't know what the outcome will be, but I am guessing that "having a little faith" will be important.

Peter

Banana Slug Psalm by Meera Subramanian

2010-05-09T18:24:00.000-07:00

from Believer Beware

"We found the tree - a fir wolfy with age, cloaked in lichen - and collapsed into the soft earth, looking up into infinity from its base. From there on the ground, from the vintage of an unbeliever, I imagined that this is what finding God must be like. Or rather, not finding but feeling found.,,My friends and rose, to see if we could circle the tree, all four of us with arms stretched taut, faces pressed against the rough bark, linking our hands to form a current. That's what God is, right? something so big that you, alone, can't wrap your arms around it. Something that stays with you, no matter where you go, right?"

I heard Stewart McLean on the radio today speaking about the first time he saw a beluga whale. Watching this great creature, only a few feet away, moved him and others present, to tears.

Meera and Stewart experienced what Celtic Christians called thin places, places where the boundaries between ourselves and the world fall apart, where the sacred shines through. Our souls long for this connection with nature with a capital N. Is it happening for you?

Peter

You’re Not In Oz Anymore

2010-05-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

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From Believer Beware;

You’re not in Oz Anymore which amounts to Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet interviewing Velvet

They met at the AGM of a few thousand witches, druids, and magick -workers. The gathering happens at a campground called Heartland, about an hour north of Kansas City. Velvet is not her real name but it’s the name she goes by in her coven of elf-witches. At first this sounds like a Dungeons and Dragons chapter but the more you listen, the more you get the sense that these folks take this all very seriously. Here’s what Velvet says,

“ There’s a list of elven gods this long, but I don’t even worship ‘em. I worship Hecate and Loki. Hecate and Loki are both ‘dark deities.’ I hate that term. The deal is they teach really hard lessons. And they’re not lessons you want to learn. People want Magick to be all flowers and rainbows. And life is not all flowers and rainbows. I’m sorry. Neither is is it all death and such, but people don’t even want to face that Loki has a tendency to teach by playing a trick, and once you pick it up you go, ‘You know, I should’ve known that.’ Hecate is more of the opinion of ‘Smack, okay you’re in this situation, now get out of it. Okay you learned something, didnt’cha?’

It’s not just the cosmos that is stranger than we could have known. So are the religious groups living all around us.

I sympathize with Velvet trying to explain what brings meaning to her life. I find myself in her shoes on a regular basis. I suppose for a lot of people today, elf-witches are no wierder or scarier than Christians.

And we don’t have to fight ‘em or convert ‘em or join ‘em. We can love ‘em. That was what this morning’s service was saying to me. Listen closely enough to our neighbours to find out what we share, and if we don’t get turned off by the strangeness, we might learn something.

Peter

Believer Beware: First-Person Dispatches From the Margins of Faith

2010-04-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

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"Please Don't Feed the Prophet" by Daniel S. Brenner

"I don't know what kind of person you are, but maybe you don't believe that God loves you any more than Barney the Purple Dinosaur loves you..."

Daniel's dispatch is a stream of consciousness rant on the seeming impossibility of making a connection with a loving God. He ends with this story;

"There was a child born whose mother did not give her milk. Nor did she give her love, nor think of her as a miracle as she lay in the cradle. A bitter woman, she was, a tormented woman, her mind had been warped by the selfishness of those around her and she saw her child only as a burden, a chain, an affliction.

Yet in spite of the mother's neglect, the child grew. For in her dreams each night an angel would come and feed her. First the angel fed her letters, all the letters of the languages of the earth. And these letters nourished the child.

And as she grew the angel began to feed her words. And this was good. She grew more and soon the words grew into poems, and the poems begat songs, and the songs begat stories upon stories.

Soon the child was grown up, and she walked the earth filled with the letters, words, poems, songs, and stories from the angel. And in small groups, people would gather to hear her. Some men wanted to hunt her down and kill her for her stories frightened them. Some women wanted to slit her throat from jealousy. Her stories spoke of the deep shame of her life, the silent pain, the loneliness. And when she spoke, those who heard her felt a nourishment they had never felt, a mending of all that had been shattered. She roamed from place to place and spoke in her quiet way, a cross between whispers and lullabies. Where is she now, this child fed from the letters of angels? ... She had disappeared. Wandered off deep inside your soul, calling out to your right now to join her. She's getting ready to tell you a story.

Peter

Believer Beware

2010-04-15T04:56:00.000-07:00

I've always had a connection with Doubting Thomas. He's the sceptic among the believers and many of us can identify with that. Many of us hear a statement of belief and our response is "Yes, but...." I think Erik Hanson would understand that.

Eriks grew up in the Evangelical Covenant Church. But by the age of 22 he had developed an uneasy relationship with that group of believers. Other influences had been working on him. So when he found himself as a counselor at a camp designed to bring about a born again experience among teenagers, it was a most awkward situation.

Hanon writes,

"From Kierkegaard I knew that Truth is subjectivity, from Nietzsche that Christians were pop Platonists, and from Rene Girard that the New Testament revealed the scapegoat mechanism secretly present in all other myths. I knew Christianity, like life, was something far more complex and messy and hard and weird than you could explain to teens in a week. And I knew that it was condescending and wrong to make teens feel dysfunctional if they did not have a Jesus experience in just the way the CHIC had preordained for them."

Here's to the revolutionaries in the crowd, the protestors in the group, the divergers, those who ask the pointed question. You are walking alongside the One who wrestled hard with the tradition and found himself in the loyal opposition. Jesus loved the tradition but he sure did not see it the way the traditionalists did.

Peter

Believer Beware

2010-04-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

To Pardon all our F***in' iniquities

Laurel Snyder grew up in a home where religion was somewhere between the opiate of the masses and a kettle of fish better left alone. As She did go to Hebrew school on Sundays but only to keep the grandparents off their case. After her parents' divorce, her mother started going to church. This caused Laurel much confusion, trying to sort out the often opposing messages between church and synagogue. She was never quite sure what was a bad word since it changed with the religious views of the family. In time, following religion classes in college and a host of other influences, Laurel began to shape a Judaism that fit her political interests and aesthetic.

And now she finds herself trying to navigate the Jewish season of awe, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur is the time to ask forgiveness of those we have harmed. During the Yom Kippur service, chests are thumped and a prayer is recited, called the Vidui. The prayer is an alphabetic recitation of the communal sins committed. Laurel calls it a string around the finger, a way to begin a new year by apologizing to others and ourselves (maybe even to God if we like) for our mistakes and missed chances. If you ask three times then the other person has to forgive you. if they don't, you are forgiven anyway. You get a do-over, if you bother to ask.

Some of the wisdom of an ancient path which Laurel affirms in her earthy style.

Peter

Oscar Romero and History

2010-03-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

It was March 24. Just a couple of hours before the procession to remember the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Oscar Romero. Before we joined the march, our group was invited to visit the headquarters of the National Civil Police. It was chilling to walk through this palatial building, knowing that underneath the lovely courtyards lay the clandestine cells where death squads brought citizens of this country to suffer at the hands of the police.

We met with a director of Investigations. This man is responsible for investigating crime today and the disappeared from the years of the war. He is Augusto Castaneda and he is also a member of Emmanuel Baptist Church. He told us one of the best fruits of last year's election was the reform of the police force. A number of commanders were replaced so that now finally the police are no longer given the freedom to do whatever they want. Discipline and accountability have been enforced.

I saw a photograph on his shelf of Augusto and Desmond Tutu who as you know was one of the leaders that contributed to the end of Apartheid in South Africa. Augusto told us that it came from a time when he was in Haiti at election time providing security for Desmond Tutu.

Augusto asked Tutu if he could have a photo with him. After the picture Tutu asked,

Where do you come from?

I come from El Salvador, the home of Oscar Romero.

And what do you think of him?

I think he is one of the greatest men in the history of El Salvador.

Tutu shook his head. He said, "No. Oscar Romero is one of the greatest men in the history of the world."

These were the words ringing in my ears as we walked that afternoon through he streets of San salvador to the Cathedral and the tomb of Romero. Fitting on the verge of Holy Week.

Peter

Everybody has a mother and they all die

2010-03-15T05:20:00.001-07:00

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This is excerpt #6 from, " Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith"

Jeff Sharlet says, "Mine did; your will too. When she does - if she hasn't already - you'll be sorely tempted to make sense of what has happened."

Jeff speaks from experience. He asked the doctors for her medical records. They told him that they would do him no good and that if it was a lawsuit he was after that he'd lose because they knew how to handle these things.

He asked his grandmother for some of his mother's letters and it was in these letters and poems that he received some understanding of who she was. She developed a faith out of many faiths. In one letter she wrote to a doctor, she said, "For some reason I don't find it necessary to be exclusive. I concentrate on Buddhist meditation and Christian prayer. And sometimes a phrase comes to me that seems addressed to the Great Spirit."

But I like best her poems, such as this one from three months before she died,

"This body, bound in skin and downy hair
Is shuddering, weeping.
It breathes and whispers a thank you with each breath.
It likes to be giddy.
It likes the mysterious warm tingle of red wine on a dark winter night,
The startle of fragrance when an orange is cut.
It likes the smack of cold winter air..
It like to dance until it is the music."

Peter

Love: Prince or Frog

2010-03-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

Cathleen Falsani, author of " The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers" , in a recent Sojourners article, related her attempt at a reading at a friend's wedding. After much thought she chose excerpts from Tom Robbins' " Still Life with a Woodpecker" which featured an exchange of letters between an environmental princess named Leigh-Cheri and a tequila-swilling outlaw called Bernard:

"The most important thing is love," said Leigh-Cheri. "I know that now. There's no point in saving the world if it means losing the moon... I'm not quite 20, but thanks to you, I've learned something that many women never learn: Prince Charming really is a toad. And the Beautiful Princess has halitosis. The bottom line is that a) people are never perfect, but love can be. b) that is the only way that the vile and the mediocre can be transformed , and c) doing that makes it that. Loving makes love. Loving makes itself. We waste time looking for the perfect lover instead of creating the perfect love."

Bernard's letter, via his attorney, arrived shortly.

"Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honour and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question, The words, "make" and "stay" become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free."

So here's a mix of realism, a love's bad breath, mixed with a degree of idealism which must be part of any new venture, or we'd never set out. If we were to write or borrow some lines to declare our love for a new love or a mature love, how would it have grown, evolved since you first met?

Peter

I am a Sea

2010-02-28T15:03:00.000-08:00

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This is excerpt #5 from "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith"

Patton Dodd remembers a day when he was 12 years old, listening to the singing of hundreds of junior high evangleical Christians. They sing:

I am a sea! I am a sec-aiche! I am a sea-aiche are eye aye en!

He has no idea what they are saying. It turns out they are singing:

I am a C! I am a C-h! I am a C-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n!

Now years later Dodd says that shouting something does not mean it is entered into your heart. He no longer can affirm that evangelical certainty. But I sense that there's something there that he is missing.

There are countless dropouts from Christianity. Other refer to them as graduates. I wish for them and for us all, a more flexible faith, a faith that can mature and develop and continue to evolve. So many exit the faith without realizing that many followers of Christ no longer adhere to the triumphalistic faith of the literalists.

It is possible to be part of a community of the Spirit that enlarges rather than restricts the spirit. I want to say to these foks, don't stop the search.

Peter

The Temple Door

2010-02-22T08:52:00.000-08:00

This is excerpt #4 from, "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith"

Danielle Trussoni writes of her travel in Vietnam. Is she a pilgrim or a tourist? Her father had been one of the countless tragedies that war left in its wake and now the daughter has come hoping to make some sense of his broken life.

One hot afternoon, Danielle finds her way to the doors of a Buddhist temple. An old monk invites her in. He asks her if she is a Christian. She says she was raised Christian but has no idea what she believes any longer. He looks on her with pity. "You must discover this. It is important to know who you are." When she was about to leave, the old monk offers three joss sticks of incense and tells her that she must pray. "Pray for what?" She asks. "You will know," he said, "when you begin."

As she tries to pray, and through the haze of the incense, Danielle recalls the family movies of her childhood. Before her parents split up, they used to gather in the evening, kids in their pyjamas, to watch 8mm film projected on the wall. Her father always said those were the best years of his life.

She recalls watching those movies again after graduate school. One scene stands out. Her father is walking along side of her as she learns to ride, holding the bar of her bicycle seat. She recalls falling and skinning her knee, but the actual event is captured on film. She doesn't fall. Her father had been there to catch her. Danielle realizes that her memory is inaccurate, coloured by later conflict.

Danielle prays for her father's illness to disappear. She prays that all the terrible things that happened in war would never happen again. She prays for peace.

Some of the most important discoveries come when we are in a strange place. The experience of dislocation allows us to explore in ways we don't when we are in a familiar place. You don't have to step out of your present context to gain perspective, but sometimes it helps.

Peter

What's past Jersey?

2010-02-07T14:13:00.000-08:00

This is excerpt #3 from, "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith".

Seth has been visiting with Jeffrey twice a week for several months. Jeffrey is in the Juvenile Detention Facility in the South Bronx. Seth is trying to teach Jeffrey and the rest of the class to meditate. Jeffrey sits in the back and rarely says anything. He appears completely disinterested. Seth asks, "What it's done for you?"

It turns out that Jeffrey meditates every day in his room. Seth is taken aback.

"...every night I go into my room and I read for a while. Then I turn out the light and do the breathing stuff you taught us. In, out, in, out. Fifteen, twenty minutes. Then I do my prayers and go to sleep...There's this place I can get alone in my room. I get into the zone...It's like duhhhh. You know what I mean... I can have everything I want in there, total freedom. It is real strong, like I was...well you know, like at peace."

"..but they don't let me stay in there. The staff kicks out...All day long we got to sit out here on this unit. It f... sucks...I can't be happy out here. All this noise. The TV is blaring all the time...And people always coming up and bothering you...No peace, man. No way I can be in the zone out here.."

Seth says, "That's why it's called a practice. Inside your room you got it, man. And that's great, keep it up, (but it) isn't about finding a place and escaping, that's too easy. The real training is, can you do it anywhere, anytime...the peace is within you, Jeffrey, not within your room."

Seth tells him that he used to live in the quiet woods and meditation was easy. When he came to New York it was tough, but "I didn't put my head under a pillow.."

Jeffrey wants to know if the forest is in Jersey. Seth says, "It's way past Jersey." Jeffrey asks, "What's past Jersey?"

Peter

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God? Goddess? Positive Life Experiences!

2010-01-31T16:45:00.000-08:00

This is excerpt #2 from, "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith". On the back cover comes this recommendation - "In a world river by absolute convictions, these ambivalent confessions, sceptical testimonies and personal revelations speak to the subtler and stranger dilemmas of faith and doubt, of religion lost and found and lost again."

"Zen Mind, Alkie Mind" by Martha G

Martha says she didn't go to AA to get sober or find God. She was 21 and she went to meet guys. She wasn't big on the serenity Prayer or the the Our Father which she had learned in Latin in Grade 1 and never really used since. Neither could she go with the goddess which worked for some of her female AA friends.

Eventually she realized she was damaging herself with alcohol and needed help to stay sober. God still didn't make sense to her and when her father died she no longer tried to make that connection.

On reading that, I wonder if maybe that will change in time. Jung says that for many people the spiritual journey does not make sense until the second half of life. But maybe Martha is already on that journey.

After 21 years of sobriety, Martha says, "It matters less and less what I believe and more and more to me that I show up, a day at a time in my life, and listen to the stories of others doing the same thing...AA is short on absolutes...but the AA Big Book suggests that if you stick around, your life will change and get better."

That rings true for me. Like many others in the church, I am less concerned with exactly what I believe and more concerned with having my life change in a good way. That church community can help us with that day by day transformation.

Peter

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Jew Like Me

2010-01-25T04:53:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try something a little different for these blogs. I'm going to work my way through an unusual new book I'm reading, "Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith" . This is the second collection to come forth from KillingtheBuddah.com. On the back cover comes this recommendation:

"In a world river by absolute convictions, these ambivalent confessions, sceptical testimonies and personal revelations speak to the subtler and stranger dilemmas of faith and doubt, of religion lost and found and lost again."

Jew Like Me

Peter Manseau offers the first dispatch. After graduation, Manseau worked for an organization that collected Yiddish books. This French-Irish-American who had learned some Hebrew while studying religion at college began to be mistaken for a Jew. In his Yiddish class he'd been called Pesach so that was his new name.

During a Lubavitcher wedding he watched then joined "concentric circles of black-clad hasidim, dancing madly, a most pit of piety." They began to call for the "Rebbe", the late leader who they believe is the messiah and who they also believe will return to them.

I've seen this kind of sacred frenzy a couple of times - in the streets of Jerusalem just outside the old city and in front of the Wailing Wall/Jerusalem West Wall on Pentecost weekend. Young men and little boys dancing, drumming, caught up in the intoxicating ecstasy of the blessed.

Pesach collapsed into a chair. Out of the crowd emerged two hasidim. One was about four feet tall. The other had Down Syndrome. Pesach asked the four foot man, "He's a rabbi?"

"Of course. And you know what else? I think he's more than a rabbi. His voice dropped to a drunken whisper. "I think he's the Rabbe. I think (he's) chained up inside him and we've got to get him out...Wouldn't that be just like Hashem? Hiding in silence, seeing what we'll do"

I like that. It sounds like the transcendent God, whose secret identity incarnation cannot help but surprise us.

Peter

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Who would be a Samaritan to you?

2010-01-18T05:10:00.000-08:00

If you saw the film documentary Super Size Me, then you'll remember Morgan Spurlock's method of investigation. He immerses himself in his subject. 30 days of eating super sized meals at McDonald's caused damage to his health as well as a depression.

Spurlock parlayed his way of understanding big issues into a series on Fox television. Each episode of 30 Days placed an unlikely person in an uncomfortable situation, eg. a self declared homophobe has to live with a gay man in San Francisco for a month; an avid hunter moves in with a vegan animal-rights activist.

Most of us tend to surround ourselves with people who think like we do. Diversity is a great idea but not so easy to bring about in our world. If we had the imagination and courage to get to know those who are radically different from us, we might get Jesus's challenge to love our neighbour. Who would be a Samaritan to you?

Peter

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Your Budget - A Theological Statement

2010-01-11T04:54:00.000-08:00

Last year in the midst of the recession, Mervin Lehman offered his perspective on why his Indiana Amish community was struggling financially.

"People wanted bigger weddings, newer carriages...They were buying things they didn't need."

Newer carriages? Quaint? Humorous? Certainly, strange to our ears. It would appear that consumerism is able to reach into even the most intentionally austere of religious communities.

Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chair make his own theological statement on the economic crisis, "Unless somebody can find a way to change human nature, we will have more crises."

Nobody has managed that. But at the very least, faith communities can continue to emphasize good stewardship practices like seeing your budget as a theological statement, being intentional about our charitable givings, making an effort to cultivate a generous heart.

Faith communities offer us the encouragement to develop the best part of our human nature. Bank on it.

Peter

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Debt Relief - Hope For The Future

2010-01-04T17:49:00.000-08:00

On a visit to Haiti I met a young man who saw no hope for the future. He put a face and a story for me on a desperately impoverished and violence-wracked country.

I thought about him again this week when I heard that the last of Haiti's external debt was finally erased. A billion dollar debt was removed this past September.

It had been a tough few years. In 2008, a series of hurricanes struck the island. But it was the huge debt that blocked future progress. The necessary policy changes were made as required by the World Bank and the United sates forgave the huge debt. Haiti joins over 20 heavily indebted poor countries who have finally dumped these terrible debt burdens.

Now people fighting to stay above water can hope that life can improve. Many voices joined together to insist that debt relief for poor countries was necessary. Those voices had an impact.

Peter

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The Christmas Story - Your Part

2009-12-21T08:39:00.000-08:00

During the young people’s story in the Sunday service, a group of teenagers put on a little skit about searching for the right present. One of the actors asked me to join her, handing me a stone. I hesitated. What was I going to be asked to do?

She told the congregation that she had been looking for some Christian Rock but instead had found a Christian with a rock.

This is the time of the year when every breathing child in Sunday School gets seconded into the cast for the annual Christmas pageant. Before you realize it some grownup is slapping a tea towel on your head or sheep ears or a tin foil crown. Next thing you know, you’re on stage.

Drama is a wonderful way to be pulled into the story. And it’s not just for children or teenagers. In this season all of us get pulled once more into this story in which messengers speak amazing words of blessing and promise to the most ordinary of people.

That gives a whisper of hope to even the most uncertain of actors. There is a small but important part for each one of us this Christmas.

Peter

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Your Part In God's Christmas Pageant

2009-12-13T14:00:00.000-08:00

I get a front row seat for the pageant every Advent. Best seats in the house. Even on a busy Sunday they are the last to be filled.

This morning the view included angels rubbing sleep from their eyes, enormous yawns, a little thumb sucking to cope with the stress, removal of lambs' ears for a closer look, twisting of hair and the look of sheer joy as we clapped along to The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy.

The excitement of the drama pulled a few "extras" from the congregation.

I spotted one little guy hopping with excitement near the piano.

Another little girl joined the cast. I wasn't sure if she was a sheep but she was the best crawler in the group. Dry land could not contain her imagination so she helped us to see what wasn't there by swimming up and down the aisle.

These "extras" remind us of the intent of the Christmas pageant, to be drawn into the action and see ourselves as characters in God's drama of love.

What part would you you like to take this year?

Peter

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Sadness and Joy

2009-12-07T05:04:00.000-08:00

This afternoon we will gather for one of the quiet, meditative services of the year.

When this was first celebrated in the United Church, it was generally called the Blue Christmas service. Now we are calling it Journey in the Light or Light in the Shadows.

The original title acknowledged the feelings of those who were so aware of the loss of a loved one or other difficult situation that could drain all the joy out of the season.

The newer nomenclature still refers to the Shadows but also to the Light that can penetrate into those places that leave us feeling so sad and alone.

Most importantly these are times when we can gather with a common awareness that we are not alone. Others share some of the pain with us. If you have known sadness at this time of year, you have a spiritual gift of being able to be aware of the pain of others.

And so we will light a candle in Memory of our Loss, one for Compassion and Community, one for Wisdom, one for Faith. Then each of us will light a candle for the one we are missing. And surrounding it all, enveloping us all in the most significant of lights, a candle for the glow of the Christ in our midst.

This little circle of friends somehow cuts to the centre of the season in a way that no other service does. I always leave feeling moved and grateful.

Peter

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End Times

2009-11-30T13:34:00.000-08:00

.This Sunday’s texts on the end times are so evocative of all the end time moments in our lives, that I forget that some groups take these stories and parables of dislocation as literal description. they foresee a day when Jesus will ride into town on the clouds like some heavenly surfboarder.

That alternate fundamentalist mentality has promoted one atheistic group in the United Kingdom to offer to provide care for pets left behind by Christians when they a re taken up by the rapture. For a minimal donation, they offer the assurance that these pets will be fed and cared for.

Sounds like a reasonable fundraising opportunity.

Peter

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End Times

2009-11-30T05:58:00.000-08:00

This Sunday’s texts on the end times are so evocative of all the end time moments in our lives, that I forget that some groups take these stories and parables of dislocation as literal description. they forsee a day when Jesus will ride into town on the clouds like some heavenly surfboarder.

That alternate fundamentalist mentality has promoted one atheistic group in the United Kingdom to offer to provide care for pets left behind by Christians when theya re taken up by the rapture. For a minimal donation, they offer the assurance that these pets will be fed and cared for.

Sounds like a reasonable fundraising opportunity.

Peter

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Remembering

2009-11-08T16:16:00.001-08:00

Sunday mornings are full of serendipity.

This morning at the pre service breakfast for veterans, active and retired military personnel, families and youth. Gwen, sitting across the table, passed over a photo of two young people in uniform. The so young faces looked out with all the possibility of youth. They were the photos of this very woman and her brother who lies buried in Germany. His grave was in the next picture with her grandson who had made the pilgrimage to the site.

The photos began a discussion. On one side of me was a young woman who said she would be studying the war in history in grade 10. On the other side of me was a young man who had been impacted by a school visit to the war cemeteries of Europe. The conversation was meaningful. We were connecting out of such different experiences.

The service began and ended with this group of 36 or so being piped in and out of the sanctuary. For some that was the most emotional moment of the morning. Others commented on the music, the trumpet, the laying of the wreath.

Later during coffee and conversation, one veteran, Alex, told me that he had just spoken to another veteran, Franz, who had been a prisoner of war in the far east during World War Two. Alex had been one of the group dropping supplies to the prisoners. He had not known until now that Franz had been on the ground receiving the lifesaving provisions.

And that was only my little perspective on the serendipity taking place this morning in the wonderful gift of intergenerational community here at Emmanuel.

Peter

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Giving Thanks

2009-10-26T05:03:00.001-07:00

Although not Thanksgiving Sunday, this was a Sunday for giving thanks.

We gave thanks for the life of Eleanor Cox as Ann Frederking led the Bell Choir in a special piece in her honour.

We remembered the lives of Ed Kirk and Marg Kneen' s Uncle Glen and will keep them in our thoughts and prayers as services celebrate their lives this coming week.

We thanked Russell Smith for writing a stewardship hymn which spoke to me on living with respect in creation. We sang this together in worship for the first time this morning.
We gave thanks for the response to the stewardship campaign and the generous outpouring of time, talents and treasures. Phyllis, Graham and Tom thanked the congregation for their generous hearts.

And finally we gave thanks for God's presence as we shared a meal together following the worship. This table, laden with soup, sandwiches and cake served as an extension to the table at the front of the sanctuary. How good it is to meet and eat together. This is one of those places where important conversations take place.

How could you not feel thankful after all of that!

Peter

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Ultimate Forgiveness

2009-10-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

The Ottawa Citizen this morning contained some strong opinions on a recent car crash into a home in our community. The home owner was accused of being too forgiving in her comments about the young man. It reminded me of another controversy over how merciful we should be.

It was close to 21 years ago that Jim Swire's daughter Flora died on Pam Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. How painful for the families involved when the tragedy was once again debated in the press. The occasion was the release from prison of Abdelbaset Ali al megrah Megrahi, the Libyan man known as the Lockerbie bomber.

Jim Swire praised the Scottish government for the release. He said, " am a Christian. So I would hope that, even if I was convinced that Megrahi was guilty, my Christian compassion and forgiveness would extend to wanting to see him die with his family around him in Libya."

Peter

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An Open Invitation To The Table

2009-10-12T07:25:00.000-07:00

This is the weekend for family and feasting. Following the service, the common question over coffee was “Who is cooking the turkey at your place?”

This year it’s not us. With a couple of exceptions, we have cooked a turkey for over 30 years. But this year part of our steadily expanding family is doing the job. And we will be the invited guests for a change.

It’s a good thing to invite others to our table. I spoke to a number of people in our church community who are opening their tables to others for this feast.

Some of us know what it is like to be a stranger in the community and how much it means when you get invited over for dinner. As a single summer student working in a northern mining community, it was church folks who invited me over on Sunday after church. It was what you did in those places. You invited in the stranger.

And it’s also part of the faith story. Remember the stranger in the land. Share with them the abundance of your fields. So whether there is plenty or where there is little, may we continue to put our faith into practice and invite one another to the table.

Burp. Excuse me. Amen.

Peter

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What To Do ...... Nothing

2009-10-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

The summer edition of the American Scholar trumpets the value of doing nothing.

The Dalai Lama has claimed that when someone harms you, the best thing to do is nothing.
Don’t call attention to it in order to shame the offender. Mark Edmundson says that much of the pain in the world comes when we pass on our own injuries, compensating for our belittlement by sticking it to somebody else.

When I read that, I can feel a protest coming on. But surely the prophetic tradition demands that we protest when harm is done to any of God’s creatures.

The rebuttal I suppose would be, yes but when we fall into a pattern of reacting to everyone who cuts us off in traffic or says something unpleasant to us, then we can become negative rather than positive forces in our relationships. So here’s to doing nothing for the sake of the gospel.

Peter

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Tiananmen Square - 20 Years After

2009-09-21T04:54:00.000-07:00

This summer there were a number of commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square tragedy. There may have been 100,000 peacefully protesting when the military crackdown occurred. Who knows how many died. Official reports say it was 200-300. Chinese Student Associations put the number at 2,000 to 3,000. Dozens remain in prison.

I only recently read about a group of Chinese Christians that gathered on June 4 to remember the event. Many of these had been student leaders in the pro-democracy movement. The group released a statement calling for repentance, truth and reconciliation. These eighty Christians said the events had not only rocked our souls, they had also awakened our sense of social justice. A search for meaning led these leaders to Christian faith.

As the Chinese economic miracle thunders ahead, let us remember those who struggle for basic human rights. They have seen no such leap ahead. But after what they have been through, it is unlikely they will be dissuaded.

Peter

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Rachel - A Mother In Need

2009-09-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival owns the title of the world’s largest Jewish film festival. This year it stirred up some folks by including in its list of films, Rachel. Rachel Corrie was a young American who was run over and killed by a bulldozer as she tried to block the path of the machine intent on tearing down a Palestinian home in Gaza.

The Israeli consul-general objected to the film and said that the Festival’s invitation to Rachel’s mother to speak, “becomes a kind of emotional grandstanding rather than the pursuit of a deeper insight.”

This morning’s scripture tells the story of a gentile woman crying out to Jesus on behalf of her daughter. How could a mother not bring emotion to the story of her daughter’s illness or in the case of Rachel, her death? And is emotion not a legitimate means of uncovering the truth?

Rachel will be on my list of films to watch for this year. Then I can judge for myself whose voice offers the deepest insight.

Peter

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Rules For Shameless Sex

2009-08-31T14:33:00.000-07:00

I saw a Christian magazine cover this week (Sojourners) called, Rules for Shameless Sex. It sounded like a good sermon title. But it wasn’t my idea so I resisted. But shameless sex is a helpful in trying to understand an area of life that has such potential for good and evil.

In the article by Keith Graber Miller, the author gives us an example of the church’s shame-filled history of dealing with human sexuality. Miller says that in our distant past the church prescribed 10 years of penance for coitus interuptus, lifelong penance for oral sex and only seven years of penance for premeditated murder.

That shows the twisted understandings that lie in our institutional past. here a few of Miller’s rules or guidelines:

1. We need to talk openly and directly about sexuality in our homes and churches

2. We need to recognize how embodied our lives are, and we need to embrace the fundamental goodness of that embodiment.

3. We need to become thoughtful critics of exploitative images in our culture.

4. We need to recognize that what we really yearn for in life is intimacy rather than the stimulation of genital nerve endings.

It seems to me that this is a valuable contribution to a necessary and ongoing dialogue for us all.

Peter

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A Mini Sabbatical

2009-08-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

Are you actually relaxing on your holidays? What does that even mean?

Roman Catholic peace activist and poet, Rose Marie Berger, says work is getting in the way of our play time. While the recession is claiming jobs, for many others work hours are increasing which causes many people to check in on work during off hours and days off. One solution to growing debt is to add another part time job. Exhaustion levels are going up for children, teens, young families and we older ones.

Berger tells us that according to the latest neuroscience, play is hardwired into us. Neurons don’t function without it. We have a duty, a typically protestant choice of words, to give ourselves a break. On the seventh day, God rested, took a mini sabbatical, relaxed.

it’s not too late for us. Summer is not yet over.

And as soon as I get my basement cleaned up, I am going to slooowww dowwwnnwn...

Peter

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United Church and Israel

2009-08-17T06:55:00.000-07:00

I have heard from folks outside our church, asking what the heck is going on in the United Church of Canada. Colleagues in this presbytery have received angry, harassing phone messages on their voice mail. These people have heard via the media that the United Church is turning its back on “the only democracy in the Middle East.”

From what I can gather, some of the criticism comes from those who defend Israel’s decisions regardless of the consequences for the Palestinian people. But some of the criticism comes from a misunderstanding of the United Church’s position over the years. For the sake of the average citizen who reads the newspaper editorials or listens to angry talk-radio, we need to do a better job of getting our views out there.

This year’s General Council is certainly doing its best to communicate the latest information from Kelowna. I have signed up for the daily updates and you can do that in less than a minute by going to the United Church website and clicking on “General Council.” If you prefer video, you can watch the daily video feed featuring Royal Orr. And if you have the time, you can watch livestreaming.

This means that any United church member with access to a computer can stay on top of the daily Council agenda. With the latest direct information, we all can participate in an informed discussion of the important issues that are being discussed this week. What an opportunity to let those around us know about the important issues that we care about as a faith community!

Peter

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Michael Jackson and God

2009-08-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

Some years ago Beliefnet reported that when Michael Jackson was a child garnering attention in the Jackson Five, he longed for time to play. The Sabbath Day offered a respite from the pressures of the stage. Fellow members of the Jehovah Witness church treated him like the rest of the congregation despite his stardom.

Jackson wistfully mused, “I miss the sense of community that I felt there. I miss the friends and the people who treated me like I was simply one of them. Simply human. Sharing a day with God.”

When I think of Michael Jackson, I think of the odd character who was depicted as a freak by the media. It’s easy to forget that before all the attention and money allowed him to fulfill all his fantasies, he was a little boy running around with the other children after services, wanting to be like everyone else, sharing a day with God.

Peter

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Making Hospitality A Deeper Part Of Our Own Faith

2009-06-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

Two months ago, over 100 Mennonite ordained and lay ministers sent a letter to the Mennonite Church USA, calling on their church to offer a full welcome to gay and lesbian people.

That may come as a surprise. For the average citizen these days, the word Mennonite conjures up straw hats and horse-drawn buggies. Mennonites are perceived as very traditional and conservative. But in fact their communities contain a fascinating mix of conservative and prophetic Christians.

On Palm/Passion Sunday of this year, this letter went out, expressing distress at the exclusion of sisters and brothers who are are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT). Their hope is for a Church guided by the radical hospitality and extravagant love of Jesus.

Our United Church congregations also have considerable variety in their belief systems. There are Christians who fall all along the theological spectrum. But when we gather as a General Council to set our direction, as we will again this summer, we seem to choose to be inclusive, welcoming and hospitable. Over the years we have said yes to gay and lesbian Christians seeking to be ministers and to congregations having the right to perform same-sex marriages.

This letter from our denominational cousins challenges us to make this hospitality a deeper part of our own faith. “We believe that all people are invited to faithful fellowship in this Body, blessing for our deepest relationships of love and care, a spiritual home for ourselves and our children, and an opportunity to fully express the gifts for ministry that God has given to us.”

Amen and amen.

Peter

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Father's Day

2009-06-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

What a Father’s Day gift, to be able to listen to my father offering his reflections on fathers, family and faith with the Emmanuel community on Sunday. There was plenty of laughter and nodding of heads as he shared his memories and testimony.

He had asked me how long to speak. i suggested 15 minutes. He countered with 20. At 23 minuts he looked down at his watch and realized he had only convered one of his three points. My mother had warned him not to ramble. So he decided to wrap up it up on the spot. Mother knows best. At the door there were requests that he come back next week and continue on.

I caught a fragment of a radio show this week, asking, “If you could ask your father one question , what would it be?” Intriguing. After church we had a father’s day lunch and my sister asked my father, “Who taught you to dance?” And I learned another little piece of his life’s story.

We all have family members who are no longer with us to ask those questions. But there are members of your family or your church family or friends who are here and who have stories worth listening to and honouring.

Carpe Deum. Seize the day. Ask. Listen. Treasure.

Peter

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People, Planet and Profits

2009-06-15T06:49:00.000-07:00

It didn’t get a lot of attention in the present economic climate but a couple of months ago, eleven banks joined to form an alliance called The Global Alliance for banking on Values.

Their hope is to provide an alternative to the current crisis in the global financial system. They are promoting the long term sustainable thinking and new forms of ownership and cooperation. The member banks hold assets of over 11 billion dollars Canadian and serve seven million customers in 20 countries.

At the launch Mr Peter Blum, CEO of Tridos Bank said the banks saw themselves as forces of change who stuck to simple core banking services that balance ‘people, planet and profits.’

One of the banks, ShoreBank Corporation, recently arranged for a $68 million loan fund that will help Bangladesh’s BRAC Bank, the world’s largest microfinance institution, making thousands of loans to the poor in Tanzania, Uganda and southern Sudan.

Here’s a group that is willing to risk investing in the poor. Good News in tough economic times.

Peter

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Community - People Helping People

2009-05-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

This morning, after the worship service in the church hall, there was a crowd of people circled around a couple of large posters. The invitation was to put a sticky next to the fund-raising idea that you would be willing to support. I wondered how this very busy and active group would respond when faced with a host of new volunteer activities, either offering a service or purchasing one.

Last month a cover story in Newsweek announced “The End of Christian America.” A Lutheran minister responded, acknowledging the decline in attendance at Sunday services but also commending those who do manage to make time to participate in faith communities.

He writes, “ There are still many families and individuals who are committed; they still manage to make it to worship on most Sunday mornings, they juggle their schedules so their kids can attend Sunday school and youth-group meetings while still playing sports or taking violin lessons, they make quilts for Africa, build homes for habitat for Humanity, service in local soup kitchens or food banks and spend their own money to go on mission trips.”

That sounds a lot like our community. Pretty hopeful stuff.

Peter

with thanks to Newsweek and Rev. John W. Futterer

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United For Peace

2009-05-19T04:57:00.000-07:00

This morning our worship service celebrated the United for Peace Campaign of the United Church of Canada. I always feel more engaged in these international programs when there is an opportunity for a face to face encounter with key players.

That happened already not long ago when we heard about Susan’s time of accompaniment in Palestine and Israel at an Emmanuel Cafe evening. The ecumenical accompaniers had some fascinating insight into life on the other side of the Wall in the West Bank.

This morning we were able to hear from Lilia Solano and her perspectives on Canada’s relationship with Columbia. Lilia has serious misgivings about our government’s mantra that Canada’s free trade agreement will be beneficial to her people. she challenged us over these last couple fo weeks to consider the consequences of the business choices we make in our country. Lilia encouraged us to embrace and express the voice of the Church. A letter from a church in Canada can make a huge difference to a Colombian village facing exploitation or violence.

Our connection to United for Peace has one further dimension. We remembered in prayer two young people form our congregation who are travelling to Palestine. Meghan and Jesse are being commissioned in a Toronto church today and will soon be immersed in communities a world away from our experience. Our prayers accompany them and we eagerly await their return and their learnings and challenge to us.

Our engagement with the church around the world deeply enriches our community’s journey of faith. Being involved with such genuinely caring people, how can we be other than grateful.

Peter

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Ministry In The World - The Reason For Being

2009-04-12T14:35:00.000-07:00

High profile musicians often get labelled as superficial, self promoters. Bob Smietana puts a dent in that stereotype in his interview with Derek Webb, a Nashville singer songwriter who also happens to be a Christian. Webb is drawing attention with his provocative new Web site.

That sounds less offensive when you realize that Webb had dedicated himself to building latrines in Africa. With 7,000 or 8,000 people a day dying in Africa from a lack of clean drinking water, Webb feels it is a sin that churches are not more involved. He says, “If you don’t follow Jesus to places like Africa, India and Asia, you might want to check whether or not, it is Jesus that you are following.”

With all the challenges facing mainline churches these days, it is tempting to see our social justice ministry here and abroad, as “extras” rather than “essentials”, as “wants” rather than “needs.”

I think the musician has got it right. A compassionate ministry in the world is the church’s reason for being. Let’s see where Jesus leads us.

Peter

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Coffee + Conversation + Faith = Action

2009-04-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

Following the typical worship service, there is this rush up the stairs to coffee and conversation. This morning I saw newcomers being welcomed, committee work being updated, friends reconnecting, intergenerational conversations, personal health news being shared, actors from this morning’s drama being congratulated.

This is one of the most significant gathering places in our life as a community of faith and it meets a wide variety of needs.

It also is a time for theological reflection. This happens quite informally. We may not give it that designation, but that’s what it is - a reflection on the deeper parts of our lives.

She says, “That service reminded me of the time my children acted in a Palm Sunday play years ago..” and you get to hear a meaningful memory in her life.

Or he says, “Thank you for praying for that situation this morning. I have been involved in that issue for years...” and you get to hear about a what led to his involvement in a group working for change in the world.

This morning, coffee time was once again, priceless. Somebody told me, and I loosely quote, “While that service was going on, all I could think of was the situation in Afghanistan where husbands and the law that will allow husbands to legally rape their wives.... and the scene I saw of Taliban kicking women on the streets with impunity...”

A distressing but relevant reflection on the this morning’s faith story. This conversation moved from insight to action. “Can we do something about this?” And off she went with an idea on how we might respond as a church. This is one reason I often get inspired over Sunday morning coffee.

Peter

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Assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero

2009-03-30T07:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we gathered in the Emmanuel sanctuary to mark the 29th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Over the years I have shared in prayers for Romero and El Salvador in many different congregations, but to share in communion with Salvadoran Canadians, with people who knew Romero, with a congregation of people who have for the most part lived or travelled to El Salvador is a very different experience.

In his last sermon, delivered on the day before his murder on March 23, 1980, Romero challenged soldiers of the National Guard to choose between God and their government: God’s law says “Thou shalt not kill” so do not obey any orders to kill another human being.

“In the name of God, and in the name of this suffering people whose laments rise to heaven each day more tumultuous, I beg you, I beseech you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression. “

The sermon ended with those words, words that still ring with power all these years later. They underline one of the major themes of this season of lent, the cost of discipleship.

Peter

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Thoughts on the Presidential Election in El Salvador.

2009-03-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

It was the day before the presidential election in El Salvador. We, were having breakfast with one of the country’s national heroes, Salvador Sanchez.

He began his career as a primary school teacher but when many of his fellow teachers were assassinated by death squads, Sanchez took up arms. He rose to a senior position among the guerillas. Now Sanchez was the vice presidential candidate for the FMLN. The next day he would become the second most important person in the country.

The surprising thing to our group is that this leader would take the time on the day before the election, to meet with a roomful of national and international election observers from churches. Following his talk and a question and answer period, people lined up for autographs and pictures. Sanchez was not familiar to most of us but from the adoring looks of Salvadorans, we had a sense of what a significant figure he was to them.

After he had been whisked away to another event, I sat down in a shady chair. I fell into a conversation with a man sitting next to me. Luis was his name. Luis told me he was a Lutheran deacon, working in a town in the west of the country.

It had been a difficult couple of years for him. A group of other ministers had confronted him about his ministry. They were not in favour of his work. He was not taking the bible as the literal word of God. His theology was too concerned with this world rather than with saving souls for the next. And yet he felt that he was being faithful to his call, putting programs in place that were dealing with the whole person and the very practical needs of the community.

Nobody was lining up for pictures with Luis, but I felt the goodness of the man and of his work. I will remember him in prayer.

Peter

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God's Call

2009-03-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

Sometimes God’ call is unavoidable. It just comes knocking on the door. That was the case for Sister Eugenia Bonetti. He first call took her from Rome to Africa where she worked for 24 years. When she returned to Rome, she responded to another call.

A young woman came to the door begging for help. She had escaped from her captors who had made her a sex slave. She was a Christian and asked the sisters to pray. This encounter opened Sister Bonetti’s eyes to the extent of the evil of human trafficking. She has been helping to open others’ eyes ever since.

Her own congregation now has 250 sisters working to provide safe havens and rehabilitation for these victims of modern slavery. She has connected with sisters around the world and organized them into a network of support and service. She has pushed governments to catch up with the church.

Eleanor Gaeten, senior coordinator for public policy in at the US State Department said it was faith-based groups and women such as Sister Bonetti who first brought the issue to the attention of lawmakers and government officials. These sisters were the ones visiting the slaves in detention and following up with them when they were released.

The sisters have the background of working with the poor. They are more trusted than the police. They have that welcoming and comforting maternal presence. A great need meets a compassionate heart. What a perfect fit.

Peter

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John Updike - A Great Loss

2009-02-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

Ever since the recent death of John Updike on January 27, I have been feeling the loss and wishing I could attend a memorial service in his honour. That of course did not happen but I did get a chance to do some reflection on his passing.

A friend who knows I love John Updike’s writing, put me onto an interview with Adam Gopnik on the Charlie Rose show. Gopnik listed his reasons for admiring this genius. Google Charlie Rose if you are interested.

Gopnik’s final point was that Updike had a great subject for his writing - the loss of faith and its replacement with sex, shallow spirituality, our family and shopping. Updike is sympathetic to this search. He doesn’t scold. But he does observe that these substitutes are inadequate.

Gopnik does not mention that John Updike was a Christian. On Sunday morning he could be found in a Congregational pew in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. More than that, he served on the church’s building committee.

John Buchanan, in the Christian Century, leaves with us an observation by Updike of taking a walk on one of those sunny days in late autumn.

“Why do we love them, these last days of something like summer, of freedom to move in few clothes, though frost has flattened the morning grass? They tell us we shall live forever. Stretched like a rainbow across day’s end, my shadow makes a path for my feet: I am my path.”

Peter

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Eboo Patel and Progressive Islam

2009-02-23T07:46:00.000-08:00

Watch out for this name. Eboo Patel. I can’t think of a more hopeful voice for interfaith dialogue. Patel is rallying young people to a kinder gentler Islam than gets most of the press these days. Progressive Christians will find a like-minded thinker in this progressive Islam.

Rose Marie Berger of Sojourners asked Patel what he would like Christians to know about Islam. He answered, “Three things...

1. The core tenet of Islam is mercy. “In the name of God, the all merciful, the ever merciful.... Be merciful on earth if you want the one in heaven to be merciful to you.

2. Diversity and pluralism is revered in Islam. One of Patel’s favourite line in the Quran is from Surah 49 - “God made you different nations and tribes that you may come to know one another.”

3. Islam is a tradition that has inspired jazz and poetry and love in one fifth of humanity for many centuries. It’s a remarkably diverse group of people so don’t think simple things about them.

Nice to see charismatic leaders that want to give this world a shake. In a good way.

Peter

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2009-02-15T16:40:00.000-08:00

There's Probably No God

So the Freethought Association of Canada is stepping up its campaign to place provocative ads on buses. “There’s Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life.”

Should Chrstians be upset? Should we write letters? March somewhere? Take a stand and register our vote that there is a God. So far more people are voting against, which means what. That antis are more tech savy than pros? Who knows? And why should United Church folk get upset? We are all for provocative ads that stimulate dilaogue on the big issues.

Let’s hope that the church doesn’t get pushed into a defensive posture once again. Is our faith not big enough to accept critique or disagreement? Maybe not. Recently the Vatican newspaper reported that John Lennon is now officially forgiven for claiming in 1966 that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.” Apparently that led some Christians to burn Beatles albums.

Maybe if we took ourselves a little less seriously, others would take us more seriously.

Peter

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2009-02-09T05:15:00.000-08:00

Misbehaving In Church

What do you do when it’s your kid that’s misbehaving in church? Well it may be a stretch to call a 2 year old’s antics, misbehaving, but they certainly can be a distraction to the ones trying to pay attention to a speaker or a prayer.

I have watched many kids over the years, as little ones begin to get louder or make a break for freedom while parents look on, wondering if and when to intervene. This time it would be my granddaughter distracting the flock.

There we were, 70 plus Emmanuelites gathered for worship after a day of snow, rain and hail on the hills at Gray Rocks. Our theme followed the scripture of Jesus reaching out a hand to touch Simon's mother in law and invite her back to health. The question for our discussion was, when have we experienced someone reaching out a hand to us to invite us into the community of God’s care? Can you remember a person who did that for you?

At first it was just quiet twirling about in the middle of the big circle. Not too annoying while we were singing. Just feeling the music. Maybe the parents should grab her but she dances just beyond convenient reach.

Then others begin to join her. A liberation movement is afoot. The timing is not good because now there are speakers trying to communicate a message. Eventually our little angel body-slams another 2 year old into the carpet. Her dad sprints to the scene and carries her back to the seat next to me. Mackenzie begins to cry as she realizes that she has disappointed. Or maybe she is just ticked to have lost her audience.

Then her little victim, noticing the tears, sympathetically approaches. Mackenzie gets down, reaches a hand out, very gently touches the face of the little girl and says, “Sorry.”

Myrna, from across the room, says, “There’s the example you were asking for.” Myrna is one of the grandmothers in the room. She knows about these things.

Peter

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2009-02-02T03:28:00.000-08:00

Road To Revitilization

Today our congregation made a decision to take another step down the road toward the revitalization of the CE building. As we were told, this is not a commitment to a precise set of blueprints or to an exact amount of money. Other steps and future decisions still lie ahead. But it was a big step.

What I found striking was not just the Eleison but the careful process that got us here. The biggest rounds of applause at the meeting were reserved for the long list of folks that did the “in the trenches” committee work. Cam Johnston thanked the committees involved for their hundreds of hours of work. Chair Graham Kneen read out the names of the many volunteers. What this said to me is that administration matters. How many great ideas have floundered on poor administration. Not the case here.

Louis Weeks in a recent Christian Century article, stresses the importance of the administrative side of a church operation. “How meetings are run, how new leaders are apprenticed, how the books are kept, how communication is structured, how events and programs are implemented and evaluated - all of this is crucial to congregational life, but rarely understood as ministry.”

So today we worshipped, shared sandwiches and coffee, and then weighed the reports and recommendations before us. All of this, and perhaps especially the professional and sensitive administration was a profound statement about our community and our ministry.

Peter

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2009-01-26T05:42:00.000-08:00

A Community of Faith

This morning’s worship service was a celebration of fifty years of worship, learning, growing in community and outreach at Emmanuel United. There were photographs and stories from a variety of folks, telling why this church was important in their lives.

One thing that struck me was how a number of meaningful faith experiences took place outside the walls of the building. There were stories of canoe trips and family camps, vespers services, bible study groups that met in homes and service-learning trips to places far from Ottawa. It was a clear reminder that the story of a church is the story of a community of people whose faith goes with them and engages them wherever they go.

The building is still important. We needed a place this morning that was large enough to gather the whole group together. We needed a kitchen and a hall with space to serve a large partnership dinner yesterday and an anniversary lunch today. The building is important for all kinds of groups in the community we serve. And so it is part of our mission and one of the resources we use and share with others.

Next week, following worship, we meet to consider the future of our CE Hall. As I listen and consider what is before us, I will be thinking about some of the stories we heard today, of a people that meet in this sacred space and from here go out to encounter and embody sacred space in all the world.

Peter

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2009-01-18T11:27:00.000-08:00

A Celebration Of A New Era

We had a Tuesday workshop cancelled this week. I have reason to believe that some of the dropouts are due to the Inauguration ceremony in Washington. I sympathize. This is a big deal for the US and for citizens around the world. There are Inauguration parties happening in our city. I know people going to these celebrations who would never have dreamed of attending such an event . It will be a celebration of a new era. How exciting and glorious is yet to be seen. There will be lots of people watching the ceremony and there will certainly be no shortage of advice for President Obama.

I read a Sojourners column form Nicholas Kristof, op-ed columnist for the New York Times and a two time Pulitzer Prize winner. Here are some selected lines:

"Your campaign fired up supporters from around the country and galvanized them to ring door bells and make phone calls. Now you need to institutionalize that enthusiasm with a national service program - not just for young people, but also for retirees." ( read here - Samuel and Eli from today's scripture story)

Kristoff reminds us that top down efforts sometimes disappoint. He advocates getting millions involved themselves in education, health and poverty programs around the world. He cites the example of supporting education for girls. The ripple effects of this are astounding.

Doesn't that sound like our service-learning trips here at Emmanuel? We've been doing this very thing in a thoughtful and consistent manner for years here at Emmanuel. Looks like we are on the cutting edge after all.

Peter

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The Church and Communications in the 21st Century

2009-01-12T03:29:00.000-08:00

The United Church’s award winning publication, the Observer, continues to adapt to the new world of communication. You can already visit the magazine online, check out the story archive, join the Observer’s news group at Facebook.com.

And now there is YouTube. The United Church’s Spirit Connection ended its twenty year run on Vision TV just over a year ago. So what should we do next?

Catherine Rodd, the United Church’s multimedia producer, said, “You- Tube is a whole new medium for us; it seemed like the perfect evolution .”

It is an effort to keep up with the pace of change in communication. But that is our business, communicating good news. We don’t have the right to ignore the shift that is taking palce nor the luxury of taking another ten years to figure it out. We need to have this conversation now, with all of its diversity of positions and opinions.

How do you think we’re doing? How would the young people we know rate our progress? What does Emmanuel need to do to continue to evolve?

Can we talk?

Peter

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2009-01-05T17:37:00.000-08:00

Everywhere I look at this time of year, I see comments on the best films, books, and photos of 2008. There are awards for the best athletes, and the best teams. We are reminded of the famous who passed away, the newsworthy events, the moments that horrified and delighted us.

What about the significant religious quotes? The Christian Century magazine collects a number of these each year. Here are a few that caught my attention:

“Try to find another way to help or find your goal. This bomb, this weapons, it’s not good to use it for anybody.”
-Omar bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden, speaking against the violence inspired by his father

“I am deeply ashamed, and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future.”
- Pope Benedict XVI, addressing the clergy-sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic Church more than $2 billion and distressed the U.S. Catholic community

“I’d like to see the CEOs of these companies march down Wall Street in sackcloth and ashes.”
-ABC News analyst Cokie Roberts, about the Wall street executives who are asking Washington to bail out their companies

“She scares me. She’s Jerry Falwell with a pretty face.”
-Retired American Baptist pastor Howard Bess of Palmer, Alaska, who says his book, Pastor, I am Gay, was on a “hit list” of books that vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin wanted banned when she was mayor of neighbouring Wasilla

What are the religious events or quotes from 2008 that left an impression on you?

Peter

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2008-12-22T05:25:00.000-08:00

This morning the scripture texts were about listening for the Spirit song. David misheard it completely. The message of God sounded a little too unlikely to Zecheriah and he lost his voice. Mary struggled with the message but she is remembered as the one who said yes to God’s gift.

How do you respond to unexpected gifts? Do you act delighted and begin to think of how you can return it for something you really want? Do you drop it on the regift pile? Do you put it on a shelf with plans to wear it when everything else wears out.

The Vatican received a gift this year they could not have expected. 2,000 solar panels. A Germon firm offered these to the Vatican as an Epiphany gift. They began to installl them a few months ago and they’ll be in place by the end of this month.

The CEO of SolarWorld said, “If the three wise men from the East came to Bethlehem today, they would in all probability bring a solar cell in addition to gold, francincense and myrrh.”

This will help the Vatican to meet the EU’s target for 2020 to get 20% of its energy from renewable resources.

Now that’s a gift that keeps on giving!

Peter

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2008-12-17T05:03:00.000-08:00

It’s one thing to hear the Christmas story. It’s another thing to be the Christmas story. This morning our Sunday School put on a delightful Christmas pageant.

This drama is being acted out this season in great Cathedrals and little country churches around the world this season. Little ones who cannot yet read are watching the big kids, following the older and wiser shepherds and angels when it’s time to stand up or move across the floor. Lines will be slightly mangled at times, cues will be missed, but nobody is upset. It’s all part of the wondrous drama. And the story is communicated.

Some of the best moments are entirely unscripted. This morning the magi made a grand entrance with the stately camel. I have not seen a better camel anywhere. As the drama continued, the camel sat down at the front. One child and then another approached the beast. Almost on tip toe. Cautiously. With wonderment. the congregation were as entranced with the child as the child was with this animal. The camel titled it’s head and gazed on the child. We all got caught up in the wonder of the moment. Those are the moments that happen without a writer or director.

Wonder. What a gift. Watch for it.

Peter

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2008-12-08T05:08:00.000-08:00

“A voice cries out in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Isaiah 40:3

The prophet we know as Second Isaiah lived in the midst of chaos. Plunging stock markets and political unrest had nothing on his time. Israel was about to go home. Decades of exile in the wilderness of a foreign land were about to end.

It was like having someone like Martin Luther King Jr. stand up and say, “I have a dream. But it’s not about the distant future. We are going to live to see this dream come true. We’re finally going home!”

Do you have the sense that we are living in exile? In what ways? What forces press in upon us and dislodge us from our values? Do you feel that at this time of year? Do you feel far from where you would like to be, as a person, family member, church member?

Is there any good news in the chaos of our times? How do we live gospel values in the midst of uncertainty? Is it easier or harder to live the faith in a turbulent time? What roads need to be cleaned up to prepare us to be a more peace-filled community? How do people in our lives need to be comforted?

So many questions....

Peter

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2008-12-01T08:15:00.000-08:00

Mark 13

In my earliest memory of a moment of awe, I am standing on my tip toes, looking over a stone wall at a great expanse of green water. I have never seen anything so immense. As far as I can see there is water. Having lived in a dry place without lakes, I have no frame of reference for a scene like this. The feeling of wonder practically lifts me off the ground.

The water I am looking out upon is the Indian Ocean. Back then in the late 1950s the place is called Bombay. It is our last day in India, and we are watching the sun go down. As we walk along the sea wall of Marine Drive, the water is on our left. On our right are large hotels including the Taj Mahal Hotel.

As I watched the reports of the terror attack this past week, I thought about that wondrous walk seen through the eyes of an almost five year old. What a terribly sad place it has become for so many. This morning’s apocalyptic reading from Mark 13 does not feel out of place.

Neither does a psalm of lament.

Peter

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2008-11-26T13:57:00.000-08:00

Stewardship

One definition of stewardship that gets quoted from time to time is that stewardship is everything you do after you say, I believe. That takes in pretty much everything.

Here’s another definition that breaks the “everything” down into more manageable portions. Stewardship is the time, talents and treasures that we offer to God and to others. We’ve heard that more often. The time and talents elements have a softer side to them. It’s the treasures or the money that have an edge.

In Robert Wuthnow’s book, God and Mammon in America, he says that while modern North Americans are quite willing to speak openly about their se lives, bodily ailments, even their own deaths, when it comes to the topic of money, a protective “cloud of secrecy” falls over the conversation. And yet money is a regular topic of conversation for Jesus.

Here’s an enlightening exercise. Read the prophets of Hebrew scripture or the gospels or the letters of the New Testament and underline every passage on the topic of money.

Money is only one part of stewardship but it should be one we can discuss openly and regularly.

Christian Century journalist, Lillian Daniel, says, “Engaging money theologically, should inevitably lead to practicing one’s faith differently.”

Could this be so?

Peter

2008-11-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

Typically elections just move the chairs around the room. Those who make the decisions shift a little in one direction or the other, but we don’t get new chairs.

This week’s election in the United States election appears to be a different matter. It’s clear that what was once considered impossible, happened.

Commentator Jim Wallis says this was not only a racial shift, it was also a religious shift. Barak Obama picked up 4.4 million more Protestants and Catholics than John Kerry, the last Democratic candidate. In Florida Christian voters shifted to Obama 485,000 votes. That was the difference. Obama won Florida by 200,000 votes.

There was a time when the religious right could count on these votes. Not this time. Does this mark the end of the religious right leaders’ ability to deliver religious votes to the republicans? It appears that the former religious issues of abortion and denying gay rights are no longer the only issues of concern. A significant number of Christians now are showing support for racial and economic justice, care of creation and peacemaking. If the early analysis is accurate and is sustained, then we have entered a new era.

Peter

2008-11-03T04:42:00.001-08:00

“Do whatever they (the scribes and the Pharisees) teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.” Matthew 23:3

Once you sift out the name calling and condemnation of this chapter, which sounds more like it was written by Matthew, than spoken by Jesus, you end up with this challenge to practice what you profess.

That is the challenge, regardless of what it is we profess.

If we claim to care for the environment, how do we show it? If we say the arts are important, what do we do to support them? If we feel we should embrace those who are new to our country, have we ever invited a new Canadian to dinner or done something to make a family feel welcome? Our faith tradition calls us to actively and practically practice the faith.

Peter

2008-10-28T04:40:00.001-07:00

"It is necessary for me to see the first point of light that begins to be dawn. It is necessary to be present alone at the resurrection of the Day in solemn silence at which the sun appears, for at this moment all the affairs of cities, of governments, of our war departments, are seen to be the bickering of mice. I receive from the Eastern woods, the tall oaks, the one word DAY. It is never the same. it is always in a totally new language."

That might work for Thomas Merton, but he was single and living in a monastery. Our life circumstances are quite different.

Maybe the dawn is a bit early for most of the year or maybe in the winter you are out the door before the sun rises but do Merton’s words stir anything in you?

Is there a daily ritual or practice that helps you to greet the newness of the day: a walk, a few moments of quiet looking out on the garden, a reading of scripture or poetry, a yoga or Tai chi morning exercise, a few minutes of meditation... What is it for you? What might it be?

Peter

2008-10-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperors and to God the things that are God’s.
Matthew 22:21

I was once part of a ministerial social justice committee in Labrador. We worked with the community to raise questions about a potential NATO weapons training centre. It was being considered for an area that the Innu community was claiming should be part of their land settlement. The local Member of Parliament wrote a letter to the newspaper saying that the church had no business in the debate. Our place was to get people to come to church, not to be involved in social issues like aboriginal land rights.

Do you think the church should be involved in issues like this? Where in your experience has the church’s involvement been helpful? When has it not been helpful? Where would you like to see the church become more involved?

Peter

2008-10-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

"Then one of them when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice."Luke 17:15"

...if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."Phil. 4:8

In the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers, only one returned to give thanks. Nine of the group members had a physical recovery, but only one took the time to express his gratitude. Is gratitude really that rare? Is it really that important? Apparently it was important enough for Luke to include it in his gospel. Stories of thanksgiving encourage that practice among the rest of us.

Here’s your opportunity to express that gift and encourage the rest of us to practice it.

Please consider sharing a thanksgiving story on this blog. Who was it in your life that taught you to be thankful? Was there someone in your childhood who helped you recognize the value of giving thanks? Was there a situation that nudged you to grow in your practice of thanksgiving?

Is there anybody out there?

Peter

2008-10-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

“...forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead...” Philippians 3:13

The apostle Paul offers his solid credentials as a Jew, "of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews." Paul valued his early life and yet he had to let go of some of his religious mindset to take the next step in his life of faith.

Are there valuable things you learned as a young person that still have meaning for you?

What are the things that you needed to forget in order to progress in your faith?

Should children be exposed to a Sunday School as children? Why? Is it better to give them a wide variety of religious options to see what fits best for them? Or is it fairer to not indoctrinate them at all and just allow them to make up their own mind when they are older?

What do you think?